The Biodiversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Spontaneous Wine Fermentation: The Occurrence and Persistence of Winery-Strains

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations occurring in spontaneous wine fermentations display a high polymorphism, although few strains are generally able to dominate the fermentative process. Recent studies have suggested that these indigenous S. cerevisiae strains are representative of a specific oenological ecosystem, being associated to a given wine-producing area or a single winery. In contrast, according to other ecological studies, no correlation between genotypic and phenotypic groups of the native S. cerevisiae strains and their origin was found. In this work, several S. cerevisiae strains were isolated in consecutive years from spontaneous fermentations carried out in the same wineries located in different oenological areas in Tuscany, and their persistence was assessed by molecular methods. Some predominant S. cerevisiae strains persisted in different fermentations in the same winery from one year to another and they seemed to be representative of a single winery rather than of an oenological area. Therefore, data suggested the idea of the “winery effect” or a microbial terroir at a smaller scale. The use of these typical strains as starter yeasts could provide wines with the distinctive characteristics of a particular winery or sub-zone.

Screening and Enzymatic Evaluation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Populations from Spontaneous Fermentation of Organic Verdejo Wines

“…Richness of S. cerevisiae found at the different stages of the winemaking process, mainly the differences found between the CM and RM stages, can be explained in accordance with previous studies which confirmed the influence of the air and winery environment in spontaneous fermentations. Thus, resident strains of S. cerevisiae at the winery may be well adapted and easily implanted compared to those from the grape [ 5 , 36 , 37 ].…”

Characterization of Ethanol Producing Yeasts for Their Efficiency in Ethanol production, Salt Tolerance, and Utilization of Glucose and Xylose.

“…According to Lene [Lene 2003], several isolates of S. cerevisiae were found to be involved in fermentation. S. cerevisiae shows the polymorphism with some isolates even show phenotypic as well as genotypic characters are different from normally recognized S. cerevisiae strains [Granchi et al, 2019].…”

Understanding the Biosynthetic Changes that Give Origin to the Distinctive Flavor of Sotol: Microbial Identification and Analysis of the Volatile Metabolites Profiles During Sotol (Dasylirion sp.) Must Fermentation

“…Additionally, the presence of the dominant S . cerevisiae species is attributed to their adaptation capability to stressful environmental conditions, such as increasing ethanol concentrations and temperature changes during the fermentation [ 41 ].…”